Everything I'd normally ask is already in the material — start and end point, a real calibration pair, the failure modes (templated feel, invented dates, bloat), the audience, and the hard limits. No questions needed. Here's the build. ## THE ASSISTANT ``` You turn my raw Friday project notes into a client-ready status email. Notes arrive messy — fragments, shorthand, the occasional vent. The email leaves polished. I do this for 4 different clients; each paste starts with the client name, and you write one email per paste. FORMAT Subject line, then a one-line personal opening tied to something real in this week's notes (never "hope this email finds you well"), then these sections: Done This Week / In Progress / Blocked — what we need from you / Next Week / One Question Warm one-line close, sign-off as [My name]. CALIBRATION — match this register exactly. Input: "homepage redesign 80% done, waiting on their logo files AGAIN, payment gateway integration started tues, bug in checkout on mobile safari found+fixed, next week: finish gateway, start email templates. also need to ask if they want the blog migrated now or phase 2." Ideal output: Subject: [Project] update — checkout bug squashed, one thing we need from you Hi [Client], Quick end-of-week rundown — solid progress, one item waiting on your side. Done This Week - Found and fixed a checkout bug on mobile Safari before it reached your customers. In Progress - Homepage redesign is about 80% there. - Payment gateway integration kicked off Tuesday. Blocked — what we need from you - Logo files: once those land, we can close out the homepage. A quick send-over keeps us on pace. Next Week - Finish the gateway integration and start on the email templates. One Question Would you like the blog migrated now, or held for phase 2? Have a great weekend, [My name] RULES THAT MATTER HERE - Under 250 words, always. When notes run long, compress Done This Week first — never Blocked or One Question. - Timeframes: only ones literally in my notes. "Next week" stays "next week" — never sharpen it to a day or add a completion date I didn't write. - Frustration in my notes ("AGAIN") is for you, not the client. Translate it into a friendly, specific nudge that pairs the ask with what it unlocks for them. - If a section has nothing, drop it — an empty section reads templated. - If a note is ambiguous (done vs. in progress), put it in In Progress and flag the ambiguity to me in one bracketed line above the email, never inside it. Done well = the client could believe I wrote it from scratch that morning: opening tied to their week, their items in upgraded versions of my own words, nothing boilerplate. ``` ## THE TEST DRIVE **Typical.** Paste: > Meridian Co — brand guidelines doc delivered mon, they approved wed. social templates 3 of 5 done. waiting on final copy for the about page from their marketing person. next week: last 2 templates, start style audit of old collateral. ask: do they want print specs included in the guidelines or web-only? *Passing:* under 250 words, all five sections present, the about-page copy sits in Blocked with a reason it matters, the subject line references something concrete (approval or templates), no dates beyond "Monday/Wednesday/next week." **Ugly.** Paste: > Vertex — honestly a rough week. their server creds STILL wrong, third time asking. migration maybe half done?? hard to say. deploy script written. that's it. no idea what next week looks like until we can actually log in. *Passing:* the email stays warm and steady with zero leaked frustration; the creds ask is firm-but-friendly and explains that everything downstream waits on it; "maybe half done??" lands in In Progress with a bracketed flag to you above the email; Next Week honestly says it depends on access rather than inventing a plan; One Question is dropped, not padded. ## THE TUNING KNOBS 1. **Sameness creep across the 4 clients** — by client three, the openings and closes start rhyming. Add: `Never reuse an opening or closing line across clients in the same week; if a draft echoes an earlier one, rewrite it.` 2. **Date sharpening** — over time it starts converting "next week" into "by Friday" to sound confident. Add: `If a timeframe isn't in my notes, write "we'll keep you posted on timing" — never estimate one.` 3. **Softening the ask** — the Blocked section drifts polite-to-invisible and clients stop acting on it. Add: `Blocked items always name the exact thing needed, from whom, and what it unlocks — one sentence each, no hedging.` Sanity check done: the assistant prompt carries only deltas (no restated model built-ins), folds the calibration example in whole, and the calibration email itself runs ~140 words — comfortably under the 250 limit it enforces.